Monday, April 7, 2008

advertising

When it comes to advertising, i am personally someone who ignores it the best i can. On t.v., I generally flip to another channel when commercials are on. I have watched shows about how advertising is set up to catch your eye and subliminal messages are used to get you to buy products. Most types of advertising just annoy me so i avoid them.
The only types of advertisments that i like to watch are movie previews. I watch a lot of movies and I like to know which ones are coming out soon. When i go to a movie in the theater my favorite part of the movie is often watching the previews, but not the advertisements they like to stick in between them.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

racism speeches

After reading both Barak Obama's speech and Martin Luther King Jr's speech, it is apparent that racism is still rampant and after all the time in between these speeches, that same problems exist and still need to be taken care of.
In Obama's speech he speaks of looking back at the past, not to get angry at all the problems that were there, but use these to address current issues and figure out how to fix them. Some things that he mentioned are that schools in areas that were segregated before are still inadaquite for young children to learn in.
Marting Luther takes the approach that direct non-violent action is more the way to go to fix problems of segregation and racism. He believes that negotiations need to be made but the only way to get to the negotiations is to cause a small amount of chaos that will force them.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Nate's Spring Break

Nate's spring break was very low key and boring. First off, he didn't get to travel anywhere this year which was a complete bummer. Secondly, his dad needed him to work some overnight shifts from Sunday night to Thursday night so he wasn't able to leave the house after 10.
The major point of his spring break was that he got to travel up to the twin cities on Saturday morning to purchase his 2001 mustang that he has been waiting for for almost a month now. Quite a bit of Nate's time was spent working on installing a sound system inside his car and trying to learn how to drive a stick shift vehicle. Watching him try to drive during the first day was very entertaining because he was really jerky with his car and couldn't seem to drive smoothly at all.
Once he got down the driving, he spent a good amount of his time picking up applications and filling them out because he needs a job really badly to pay for his new car.

Monday, March 3, 2008

a modest proposal

I have read A Modest Proposal once before in one of my high school English classes. This story really strikes me as an interesting story because as you are reading it, it goes from explaining a crisis that Ireland is having, to his proposal. The first time you read this story, his proposal is not the sort of thing you are expecting. It has a real shock value to it because the way he explains it makes a lot of sense, just doesn't seem sensible.
In Jonathan Swift's proposal he explains a way that he could help the country get out of its economic hardship. He proposes that children at the age of 1 year be sold off for food and leather goods. Though his proposal is sickening to think about, If it were actually put in place and people went along with it, this proposal would help the economic standing among the poor quite a bit.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Go Further

I thought that the film Go Further was very well done. I really like how the group of people was devoted enough to spend so much time and travel across California to spread their message. They really pushed themselves to keep going even through injuries and opposition.

I support the groups effort to inform people on how to leave a lighter footprint on the earth. As a society we need to work on using less resources from the earth and learn how to make more resources available. The only thing that i don't agree with is the notion of only eating "raw food". I think that meat should still be eaten, just that growth hormones and other chemicals shouldn't be given to livestock before they are fed to us.

When it comes to organic food, i also agree with them. Many companies are using genetically enhanced seeds for crops, which could eventually lead to crop failures and mutated crops. When you grow food organically, it makes sure the seeds will last and also keeps harmful chemicals from getting into our food and into our environment. Organic food is not only safer for the environment but also for the consumers.

Monday, February 11, 2008

My parents chose the name Nathan for me. I don't think that they chose this name for any specific reason other than the fact that they liked the name. I looked up the meaning of my name on a couple different sites and they all gave me about the same meaning. The name Nathan comes from the old testament and means "giver" or "to give". It is also the name of a prophet from the old testament and was a son of king David.

I think this meaning suits me well because i have always been a giver when it comes to other people. I love giving gifts and I try to give help to people whenever they need it.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

In the library session I learned a lot about how to look up and find books within the library system. I also found the use of the databases very helpful in finding good, useful information about my topic. Though i didn't find many print resources dealing with my topic choice, i did find a very helpful e-book that had a ton of good information.

Regarding my paper i feel that I am very well prepared and that i do not have many issues with it. I think that I have chosen a strong topic and have enough information to write a good, solid paper on it. The only thing I'm slightly worried about is the time issue since we only have one week, but i think that i should be able to put together a good rough draft within that time.